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Tuesday, October 13, 2015

A Peak At Heaven

Dara - in a happier moment :)

by Carole Towriss

Dara was sitting at the island in the kitchen last week after dinner when
she suddenly threw up her hands in frustration. “I hate America!”

I was stunned, to say the least, to hear this from a child
who might literally be dead were it not for America. (When I retold this to my
21-year-old later, she laughed and said, “Say it a little louder, Dara. I don’t think the NSA heard you.”)
It soon became apparent that Dara was doing her history
homework, and that the class was studying the Civil War. In one of her patented
Dara-rants, she raged for a good five minutes. “I don’t understand how people
could do this. How can people who say they are ‘men of God’ do this to other
people? Make them slaves, and beat them and chase them? We are all the same! There is no difference! I just don’t understand!”

Well, how could she understand? I don’t understand. How do you explain something that defies
explanation?

All I could do was shrug and say, “That’s because you grew
up in Washington, DC, in the 21st century.”

Which is, in large part, true. My kids go to school in a county
system with kids from more than 150 countries. They’ve never known anything
else.

My husband took this photo of the worship team in our church
last Sunday. It’s a terrible picture, quality-wise. But it’s a beautiful
picture of the body of Christ. The pianist, whom you cannot see, is Haitian-American.
The keyboardist just moved here from India with his wife. The drummer (in back) is from
America. The singer is Vietnamese-American, and the guitarist was born in the
Philippines. And the wonderful older gentleman, whom I dearly love, is Emmanuel,
who was born in Nigeria.

When the congregation sings it is such a beautiful mixture of accents you might think you are already in heaven.

My kids didn’t have a second thought about the group. To them
this is normal.

Maybe someday, before we get to heaven, it will be that way
for all of us.

4 comments:

Sad to say that atrocities are committed not only in America, but all over the world and have been forever. We must take our peeks at Heaven when we get them here on Earth. As your photo shows, we do see glimpses. Hugs to Dara. She's a cutie. ;-)

The multi-cultural theme has been on my heart for a while now since we are seeing more ethnic groups flood into little, ole Roanoke, VA. My burden is to see believers/local churches begin to re-frame their thinking. Dorothy's words in The Wizard of Oz is how many feel, myself included: "We aren't in Kansas anymore, Toto." Well, maybe some are. :) My point is, in order to win people to Christ, we need to step outside our comfort zones and reach out to those around us who speak, dress, and act differently. This will take some doing for many who still find it a challenge to witness to those who speak English and dress/act like they do. Perhaps this is a particular struggle for those living in the South, but I wager a guess, it's a common theme among believers in America. How wonderful to see your church a mix of believers from around the world! Yes, a taste of heaven. Let's pray that the American church will rise up and take Christ's mandate seriously, to reach the world for Him. Because the world is certainly right in front of us, where we work, in our neighborhoods, in the grocery store, and in this author's creative writing class (a Muslim family).